Young And Beautiful
by Hey-Look-A-Pinecone
Summary: When Ariel makes her debut performance and overcomes her fear of the stage, Daniel decides that, as her best friend, he should give her a celebration. Their favourite lake beckons at sunset, and Daniel and Ariel both find that its harder to keep boundaries up than they first thought it would be.


They're celebrating Ariel's debut performance. It is only a small-town talent show, and she only sings one song, Young and Beautiful, by Lana Del Rey. But she feels as though she has conquered even an iota of her fears to do with stage fright, and so he says they're going to celebrate.

He takes her to the lake right before sunset, tells her to bring her bathers. It is late October, and the air is crisp, and she doesn't think he'd really follow through with swimming, so she packs them instead of putting them on.

Daniel has been her closest friend for as long as she can remember. She even moved across the ocean with him when he caught his big break. Still though, she feels as though she knew him better as the awkward young boy he'd once been, small for his age, his hair always cropped short and his eyes, too wide, always startled-looking and slightly sunken into his face. She'd been more comfortable around him back then, when her imperfections hadn't been so numerous (at least in her own eyes) and his understated good looks still veiled by a thin veneer of teenage awkwardness.

He's always been beautiful to her, but lately her eyes make unconscious, unbidden notations; the way he not only fills out the shoulders of shirts now, but stretches them, and the way his height has taken off like an Olympic sprint race, short in distance but stellar in speed. She notes the way he's grown into his huge eyes, so that that they're not so much as sunk into his head now as they are accentuated by the sudden appearance of cheekbones that could cut glass. And when he turns away from her to speak to someone else, her eyes are drawn to the sharp lines of his jaw and the way the muscles move there as he speaks.

When he'd found Crystal, just over a year ago, she'd been respectful and taken a few steps back, but Daniel was adamant that nothing should change their friendship. So Ariel had pushed her feelings into a tiny box and locked it, being the amicable best friend she should be, and her and Crystal had sort of clicked. Not that they had become best friends, but they had genuinely liked each other.

And when the couple broke up, she was there for the both of them. In fact she'd scolded Dan a little because he seemed so put together after it ended as opposed to how distraught Crystal was, but he assures her he isn't, and really, she knows that. She can see it in his eyes. She always knows when he is fragile.

And all that led to today, ankle deep in the frigid water, watching him skip stones across the rippled surface, and wondering how she got to be so nervous around someone she's known since before she can remember.

He stands several feet further into the water than she, and now he turns back to her, grinning widely. "Are you coming in?" He enquires in his lilting, strangely accented voice, his curly head cocked to the side and his bright eyes glinting in the fading light.

"Does it look like it?" she snarks, wrapping her arms around her body. It is chilly now, and she'd give anything to be able to reach out and put her arms around him for warmth. She doesn't though. "I've still got all my clothes on, Einstein."

"So do I," He snarks back. "And that's not stopping me." Without another word he dives down under the water, and he's under for a long time before he surfaces again. He always does this to her, holds his breath until she's sure he's drowned, and then rises up to scare her.

When he surfaces, the water streams from his hair, dark now and plastered to his face, down into the white and blue striped sweater he is wearing. His lips are purple with cold and his teeth are chattering, but he is smiling brilliantly and its so captivating that Ariel forgets to be wary, and so she is caught off guard when he sweeps her off her feet and carries her further into the water like a baby. She daren't kick and scream, because she knows that doing so will only further what is about to come next, and she takes a deep breath seconds before he throws her in.

For a moment, she doesn't know what's up or down, but she gets her bearings and pushes off the bottom, surfacing with a gasped intake of air. When her ears register sound again, she hears his raucous laugh, and she tries desperately not to smile at him, but he sees the corners of her mouth quirk up and that sets him off again.

"Blugh," she proclaims, and shakes her arms a couple of times. "You know I'm meant to be going out later, right? I'll look like a drowned rat."

"Yes, but a very cute drowned rat," he says and rests a dinner-plate sized hand on her head briefly. Even soaking wet he is warmer than her, and her teeth begin to chatter. "Are you alright?" He moves closer to her as if to hug her, but she can't let him hold her because if he does she won't ever want him to stop, so she pushes him down into the water and laughs at her own ingenuity for a few seconds until he grabs her arm and drags her with him. And then she is lying flush against him in the water and she is blushing and he doesn't seem fazed at all, maybe just a little dazed from the fact that she one-upped him.

Pushing away from him, she strikes out with her arms and swims deeper, acclimatizing to the water and thinking she may as well swim now that she's in.

Behind her Daniel shakes his head to clear it and runs a hand wearily over his face. He can't catch a break. He's been desperately trying to get close to her for the better part of an hour, but nothing seems to work. She always finds a way to twist away from him, like smoke through his fingers. It's frustrating. He hates it. And there's nothing he can do about it. Rolling his eyes exasperatedly, he swims after her, trying once more to close the distance.

He is a brilliant swimmer, and she isn't, and lately she hasn't been too well. He can hear it in her voice when she speaks next, the exertion she's putting out just to keep moving. They tread water for a couple of minutes, do handstands, make light banter, and then she suggests going in. He agrees because his chest is on fire, but he doesn't know if that's because of how cold the water is or if its because he's so close to her he could reach out and kiss her.

All he knows is that as he swims in, suddenly she is behind him and she's wrapping her legs and arms around him and she lays her head on his shoulder as she silently admits defeat, the exertion of treading water suddenly too much. He doesn't say anything though, because he likes the feel of her cool skin touching his face, and is painfully aware of the feel of her cotton long sleeves around his neck.

Back in the shallows again, he is reluctant to let go of her, and she seems to be dawdling as well, looking behind them at the sun setting over the water. She lets go, and they stand up, turning so as to get a better view.

"Its so beautiful," she sounds awestruck, and his heart palpitates. He steps out to her, takes her arm in his hand and turns her around, deciding enough is enough and he can't take it anymore.

"You are," he says simply, and he can see her reaction in her eyes, the front she always has up that takes his words as a corny line, before something deeper reflects there and her face turns a light shade of pink that matches the sky behind her. It's driving him mad.

"Danny, I…" He shakes his head and scowls playfully, pulling her in so she is flush against his chest for the second time in ten minutes.

"Don't call me Danny unless you mean it," he mumbles, and moves his face closer to hers. "Tell me if this isn't okay," he says, and his heart almost judders to a stop when her eyes flash, and he has a split second where he thinks that maybe he's read this moment wrong, but then he doesn't have time to wonder anymore because her mouth is on his and he's kissing her and its everything he's ever wanted and more.

Her mouth is gentle under his and her lips are soft and she does this thing where she drags her teeth across his lip and _sweet Jesus_ that shouldn't be legal.

When they break apart, her face is cradled in his hands and he rests his forehead against hers, eye to eye, nose to nose, and they don't say anything just yet, because they've known each other their whole lives and who needs words when you're with your best friend?

And so he turns her to face the last few seconds of the sunset before it slips below the horizon, and he puts his arms around her from behind and rejoices in the fact that the warm, living body in his arms now partly belongs to him as well.


End file.
